As I would like to create the animation on my own ( ive been told that its a crazy notion),
I am going to cut some production corners. The main time taken in the production of animations is usually rendering out the scenes, so I intend to pre render still images and composite them along with the animated character in After Effects. Above is a matte painting created in Photoshop then exported in layers to after effects. The depth of feild is a wee bit off but it was just a test.